There are two stories I have heard (in discourses by S.N.Goenka) and I wonder if someone here can point me to where they come from in the Pali Cannon and a translation/commentary by a Theravadin scholar.

One is about a woman who waits long for a child and finally has one only to lose him to death and she is distraught and will not acknowledge he has died. People bring her to the Buddha and he sends her to bring sesame seeds from the town - but she must bring them from a household where they have never had a brush with death. Of course she can't find such a household.

The second is about a woman whose children and husband die and she is alone and becomes wild with grief. She goes around the village naked (not in her right mind) and the peope throw stones at her. Someone brings her to the Buddha and he teaches her to meditate.